


Oh Great Belegny Tree

by Llilii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Slow Build, Slow Burn, lol I don't even know what's going on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-09 16:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7808881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llilii/pseuds/Llilii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith and Lance are told they're are eternally bonded (amongst other things that happen). They don't like that idea. They don't much like each other.<br/>"Or at least, quite yet. They'll learn to love each other."™</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I realise how similar to the Balmera the 'Gahruin' is but like, lol what can I do, I already typed all this. (One's not like a planet I guess??)

"They're at it again…" muttered Allura. She watched with the rest of the Voltron team as Lance and Keith struggled to remain remotely civil in each other's presence. Right now the two of them were tangled in a complicated knot of vines, slapping and kicking at each other. Pidge raised their hands to their mouth.

"Okay whatever you two are arguing about, it's both of your faults."

"What?" Lance yelled, "Uh, no. Clearly it's Keith’s fault here," He gestured stiffly in Keith's general direction, "He was the one who suggested that we'd help that Pokc find its cat."

"It's not a cat!" Keith retorted, "And I was just being nice."

"That's true. A good paladin always helps others in need, no matter how trivial the task seems. …But I wonder," Allura raised her arm and pointed to a spot in a tree high above them, "is _that_ the cat you two are looking for?" Everyone gasped as the 'cat' came into full view. It had six long, bony limbs, 4 eyes set in the centre of its squashed face and a long reptilian tail that was at least twice the length of its body.

“Lance, you thought that was a _cat_?!” Hunk yelled, covering his head with his arms.

“It has pointy cat ears!”

The creature launched from the trees. It spread its legs, revealing small flaps of skin which allowed it to glide calmly above the group.  
“Hey it’s getting away!” Lance shouted and violently thrashed in the vines, kicking Keith in the face.

“Ow- what do you think you’re doing?!”

Shiro watched it glide away for a moment before turning back to the team. “Alright. Pidge, Hunk; try and free those two from those vines. I’ll go catch that errr...cat.” He ran off.  
“Great. I’ll stay here and see if I can’t help.” said Allura. “See if I can’t help calm down the-…”She trailed off as she turned and saw the tangle of limbs that was supposedly Pidge’s and Hunk’s attempt to get the blue and red paladins free. Lance and Pidge were yelling at each other (“No, free my head first!” “I can’t! The vine around your head is tangled with the one around Keith’s left leg! I have to free your arms first.” “Hey! You better not burn me with that thing.” “Geez, I’m going to be careful!”) and Keith merely looked on indifferently as Hunk tried to use his strength to rip through the vines.  
“Nnnnnggghh….almost…there…"Hunk strained but his grip slipped and he ended up crashing onto the ground," Nope, can’t do it. Sorry man. These alien plants are super strong.”

“Well, you tried Hunk.”

“Paladins! What are you doing!” Allura exclaimed, and rushed towards them, both arms raised to signal them to stop what they were doing. “These are vines from the Belegny Tree. You have to treat them gently. Lance, Keith, didn’t the locals warn you about them before you searched for their pet?” Lance and Keith glanced at each other with slightly guilty and uncertain looks.

“Uh. Actually yeah. They said something about a giant tree with purple vines, and being careful…” Lance tilted his head. Or at least as much as the vines would allow.

“Well _clearly_ you weren’t.  Now you’ve angered it.” Allura crossed her arms then sighed, glad that at least the immediate danger was averted. The supposedly all powerful Voltron team being struck down by a tree because of their ignorance; she would never have let them live it down.” The Belegny Trees  are considered sacred to the Pokc. I don’t know what you two did to anger it, but the best way to free yourself from its vines is to calm it down somehow. “  
“Calm it…down?” asked Keith, he raised his arm and looked carefully at the vines before he patted at them uncertainly.

“You call that calming a tree?” scoffed Lance, “Watch and learn buddy.” He grabbed at several vines and brought them together into a hug. “Oh great Belegny Tree, please forgive our misdeeds. We don’t mean any harm to you. We were just trying to catch a cat. Please forgive us for breaking one of your branches. We’re really sorry. And I mean that.” He closed his eyes as if he were praying.

“I’m sorry too.” added Keith. There was a pause. Then the vines loosened its grip on the pair, sliding out and untangling themselves but while still keeping them trapped within a cage. They wait for a few seconds more but nothing else happens.

Allura tapped her cheek thoughtfully . “Hmmm…we’ll have to ask the local Pokc. You two might have to stay here for a while longer though,  just until we find out how to free you without further angering the Belegny Tree.”

“Aww man.” whined Lance, “and I was so getting excited about the celebration party they were going to hold for us.”

“There wasn’t any celebration party to begin with.” said Keith.

“What? Seriously? After we saved their village and everything? Ugh, when will we get to a planet that _actually_ appreciates what we do for them?”

“They do appreciate us,” said Allura, “just not…in the way you want them to.” She looked at them almost pityingly. “I’ll go down to the village now and ask for their advice. It shouldn’t take too long. Pidge and Hunk, are you fine with just watching these two?”

“Yep!” Pidge chirped, at the same time Hunk huffed out a “Yeah…”

Allura nodded once, before she turned and left, quickly disappearing behind tall trees and dense undergrowth.

Hunk crossed his arms and looked at Lance, raising an eyebrow.

“How did you two even end up in this mess? And why, is it always you two? I- I mean. Look at us. Pidge and Hunk. Opposing sizes. Small and Big.” He moved his arm up and down to emphasis their height difference. “Green and yello- well they’re close on the colour spectrum but anyway, big and small. And we get along pretty well. So what's the big problem between you two?” Hunk wrapped an arm around Pidge and grinned brightly at them all. Keith groaned at the same time Lance tried to poke his head out from behind several vines.

“Hey, we have this whole _fire and ice_ thing going on. We’re basically destined to be mortal enemies.”

“Only you believe that Lance.” said Keith.

“Yeah, you guys pretty much have the best teamwork out of Voltron.” commented Pidge. “But only when you two manage to put aside your differences.” Lance frowned at Keith before turning to glare at the other paladins.

“Me? Working with Keith? I don’t buy it. Anyway, shouldn’t we be trying to calm down this tree?”

“I don’t know,” said Pidge,”It seems pretty calm. It wasn’t like it was trying to strangle you two before and now it’s just, surrounding you?”

“You guys are sitting there pretty comfortably right?” Hunk asked.

“Not quite my definition of comfortable but yeah, I guess.” Lance shrugged. “What do you think its deal is? Maybe we need to give it something?”

“What, like a live sacrifice?” Hunk was immediately fearful.

“No, I don’t think so” mused Keith, “If it wanted a sacrifice it would have already killed us. I guess we can’t do anything other than wait for Allura to return. Hopefully these locals know a lot more about calming trees than we do.”

 ---

 Shiro continued to run, deeper and deeper in the forest pursuing whatever creature Lance and Ketih had beem attempting to catch. It was only a little ways ahead of him, and was swinging through the trees using its reptilian like tail.

“What kind of creature are you?” Shiro murmured to himself. He had to vault himself over a large exposed tree root and landed with a roll. The creature was now sitting on a high branch, looking at something he couldn’t see. It made a high pitched jittering noise, scrambled down and ran towards Shiro, kicking up dead leaves in the process, before it jumped right into his arms and screeched right into his face. Shiro almost collapsed under the sudden addition of weight.

“Uh-what!?” He grabbed at the creature and tried to bring it under his control but it shrieked and tried to escape, clambering on top of Shiro’s head. “Buh- no, get _back here._ Mmmmf.” He fell backwards and rolled on top of the screeching creature, holding in place. The two had a brief and violent tussle during which Shiro was whacked multiple in the face by the reptilian tail and had dead leaves stick themselves about every nook and cranny of his suit. To say the least he looked a fair amount more disgruntled than before, but also triumphant because he managed to finally, somehow, pin all the arms of the creature together.

“You have a lot of energy don’t you?” He said when the creature made move to free itself again. “But what were you so scared of before?” He risked a look over his shoulder as the creature started to thrash around violently. “What is it? What is it you’re so scared of?” Then Shiro registered that the noise around him suddenly gotten louder and more distinct. While before the soft rustling had Shiro immediately assume that it was the sound of leaves being gently rustled by the wind, he now realised that he couldn’t feel any wind and that meant the mass of dead leaves on the forest floor were slowly shifting on their own.

 Panicking, Shiro jumped off from the forest floor and brushed frantically at the ‘leaves’ in his suit but they seemed to be stuck fast. The creature scrambled up from underneath him and bounded to the nearest tree before it turned and screeched at him again.

“I’ve got to climb up a tree?” Shiro looked around desperately, but all the trees around him had smooth bark and their lowest branches were several metres up. “No choice then. Thanks for the offer,” he addressed the creature,” but I’ll continue on foot.”

 --- 

_“Did you find any information yet?”_

“Well, according to the village elder a special ritual needs to be performed. I’m bringing them to you along with several other members of the villages as we speak. They seem rather excited about doing it though, apparently this ritual hasn’t been performed since the village elder’s grandfather.”

 _“Okay. Nothing’s happened over here so far. The tree’s just sort of caging them together.”_ Hunk looked over his shoulder at the vines and at Lance who was getting more restless as the night started drawing in. He was nudging at the vines with his foot and occasionally shifting his body into different sitting positions, causing the cage to vibrate and jostle Keith around. _“_ Well, Lance is getting kind of fidgety and I know him well enough to fear the kind of trouble he brings when he’s becoming bored _.”_

_“You realise I can hear you right? We’re sharing the communication channel.”_

_“_ Yeah, well it’s true. Allura, you would not believe the kind of punishments I had to go through because of some of Lance's crazy ideas when he was bored.  I don’t think I can look at the gym the same way again. _Did you know that they haven’t changed those gym mats in 20 years?”_

“ _Hunk, I think you should stop there before it becomes too much information.”_ Said Shiro. He sounded slightly out of breath. _“On the plus side, I’ve found the creature. Haven’t caught it, it’s pretty intelligent and it seems harmless. Right now I’m following it around the forest.”_ His voice dropped and turned more serious, “It’s frightened of something in the forest, and I think it’s something to do with the dead leaves on the forest floor.”

 _“What, leaves?”_ said Lance, his voice dripping with disbelief. _“Maybe chasing that cat has messed with your head.”_

 _“_ No, I’m being serious, Lance. Have you noticed that the wind isn’t blowing right now?”

“Yeah?” said Hunk.

_“Look at the leaves on the floor.”_

Hunk looked down at his feet to see a growing pile of leaves around his shoes. He moved his feet but some of the leaves remained attached to them, and didn’t fall off even he shook his foot.

“Uhh… _should leaves be this sticky?”_

“Paladins? What’s going on?” asked Allura.

 _“I’m not sure, but this creature seems to know about it.”_ Said Shiro.  _“I guess I’ll keep following it. I''ll contact you again if I come across anything big.”_ He dropped out from the communication channel.

 _“_ If you’re talking about the moving leaves…”spoke another voice, and Allura turned to look at a young looking Pokc; they were holding many scrolls which obscured their face, but they peered around the tall rolls of paper, their large eyes shining brightly. “You would be talking about the Gahruin, and how even dead leaves seem to gain life around its presence. It’s an old legend of a great creature who, after a ten thousand year sleep, wakes up and revitalises the land. "

"Do you suppose the strange movements of the leaves have something to do with the Gahruin?”

“What? The Gahruin’s just an old legend.” said the young Pokc and they frowned, uncertain.

"So...what  _is_ the legend of the Gahruin?"

"Oh, the legend of the Gahruin is a story about the origin of life." The young Pokc seemed to smirk, as if it was a ridiculous idea to them. "The legend goes, that the Gahruin had an enormous amount of energy and life force stored within itself, but nothing to share it with. It cried so hard from its loneliness that its tears formed the oceans, and the scales it shed from rubbing at its eyes so hard fell and formed our mountains. Unknown to the Gahruin, those tears and scales were infused with its own life force, and from within them burst the first life forms. The Gahruin was obviously overjoyed, and continued to give the creatures its own life force to make sure that they survived. This drained the Gahruin out of so much of its energy that it needed to sleep, only waking every ten thousand years to give more of its life force away, so it may never be lonely again."

“...what a beautiful and sad story…." Allura's eyes were shining, and she wiped away at the corners of them. "I wonder if a creature like that could really exist." 

The young Pokc looked down at the scrolls they were carrying, expression unreadable.

"Yes, that would be nice I suppose. I wouldn't think too much about it, it  _could_ be just some wind blowing the leaves around." 

 _“But you know…”_ Said Lance, _“I’m actually not feeling any wind around me. The leaves in the trees are completely still, but the leaves around Hunk are still moving.”_

 _“Ahhh! They’re climbing up my legs!_ That’s it! I’m coming into the cage with you two!” Hunk ran towards the vine cage and tried to force himself in, but the vines refused to budge.

“Maybe the Gahruin’s not a legend then.” commented Pidge. They had been silently listening to the entire conversation but now spoke up, squatting down to peer closely at the leaves on the floor. Pidge held one up and it vibrated in their grasp. “I could get this leaf scanned but it looks normal under gaze. Something else might be making it vibrate.”

“We’ll all look at it together, we're almost there.” Allura glanced at the sky, which was now turning a darker shade of pink, edging towards purple, and addressed to the village elder, "Village elder, how long will this ritual take?”

“Oh, it’s not very long. We will be able to finish it before nightfall.” The village elder spoke; their voice raspy, but strong. “I will be honest with you Princess Allura. This ritual only requires 5 members other than the couple to be bonded. Everyone else here is merely overexcited as this is the first bonding ritual they’ll see performed since we never had time for those under the Galra's control.” Several of the Pokc, including the young one Allura talked to, blushed and grinned sheepishly. 

“Bonding ritual? I thought we were freeing them from the vines of the Belegny Tree.”

“Yes, that is also it. Princess Allura, I will tell you, though you now know the past of the Gahruin, you haven't been taught the ways its energy still interacts with us today. All the creatures of the land and sky, and all the plants, they are bound to the Gahruin through its energy, it's life force, which runs within all of us. This energy will sometimes give some creatures a strong bond with another. They are from then on destined to be together, to live, to grow, to die together, and their combined energy will be returned then to the Gahruin to create stronger and more beautiful life-"

“ _Wait, WHAT?!”_ shrieked Lance. He had finally snapped out of his temporary shock, _“I’m going to be bonded to KEITH?! Nononono, hold on. You’ve made a mistake, you see. We’re not meant to be together, we’re not meant to be anything but rivals. So uh, stop whatever ritual you have planned, we just want to get out of these vines. Right Keith?”_

_“Honestly, I feel a little sick at the idea of being married to Lance.”_

_“But I’m a little curious,”_ asked Hunk, _“what made you think that they were bonded?”_

“As said before,” began the elder, “All life is bound and linked to the Gahruin’s energy, but the Belegny Trees are the most closely linked of all. They can sense the energy of individual creatures and even creatures that live in faraway lands. They are able to see which creatures should be bonded with each other. There is a fable about a far separated bond that met each other following the path the vines of the Belegny trees passed them through. They are the most ancient and respected life on this planet. It is through the Belegny Trees that we are protected, that we are guided.

“Personally,” whispered the young Pokc aside to Allura, “I think that the people the Belegny Trees choose just happen to like each other already."

“If that is true…” said Allura, turning back to the village elder,” Then what about the angering of the Tree? My paladins seemed to have very carelessly injured a Belegny Tree, and the Galra troops who had shot at the trees were immediately attacked by its vines. Perhaps the tree is just keeping them hostage because they have injured it?”

“No, I do not believe so Princess Allura. The Belegny Trees are most gracious creatures. It would take much to anger them, especially if it’s a creature that doesn't truly mean harm. The Galra hated all life beyond themselves and the Belegny Trees responded to that hate. It is not unusual for a Belegny Tree to cage the bonded in the manner you have described to us. It is most common if the bonded seem to reject each other, and deny their inherent attraction to each other.”

_“Keith and I are not attracted!”_

“There is that denial I was talking about,” the village elder smiled.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ  
> This is tagged slow burn for a reason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow.  
> I'm so sorry for this late update, but I smartly decided to pick a bad time for me to begin writing this.  
> Expect another (longer) update in...three weeks?  
> I'll like to thank Jetfeather and Piperooni for being my (what was it...) beta testers?  
> Idk

“Whatever the villagers say about this tree being a so called _matchmaker_ , I don’t believe it,” growled Lance, crossing his arms and viciously nudging at the vines with his foot.

“There has to be another way to free us from these vines without needing to cut them down. Another ritual?” Keith turned to glare at Lance. “I’m not being married to you. The villagers must have another ritual. There must have been incidents where Belegny Trees accidentally trapped the wrong people...Right?” They both contemplated this idea for a bit.

“Even if they do have another ritual…” continued Keith, “We don’t have much choice but to wait for them to get here to tell them that.”

“So we’re stuck here until then?”

Lance flopped back and groaned persistently for a few seconds before he suddenly snapped his head up and straightened his previous slouch.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea! What if we convince the tree that we are actually rivals? Mortal enemies, willing to fight to the death!” He announced dramatically and summoned his bayard, intending to turn it into his blue rifle before  Keith hastily pulled it back down.

“You want us to duel inside this small space? With your capabilities we’ll end up blasting a hole through the tree!”

“No, no, no,” corrected Lance, “We’ll be fake fighting. Alright, maybe my idea about using our bayards wasn’t the greatest..” He returned the bayard to his suit, and held up both of his fists, ready to fight. ”We’ll just use our bodies, get close and personal; like _real_ rivals.” Lance proceeded to punch the air while grinning devilishly.

“You...really want to fight me?” said Keith dubiously, “You hardly even train in the training deck.”

“I do train! I’m just not obsessed with it like you are,”he snipes back, now practising different jabs. “Seriously Keith, do you ever relax?”

“Look,” sighed Keith, now mildly irritated, ”I just don’t think we should be fighting.”

“Well? Do you have another idea then?” Lance asked. He then made a terrible rendition of a kiai with a screechy, “ _Heeee-yaaaah!”_ and aimed a sideways slice at Keith that he easily blocked with his arm.

“Alright, I know you two don’t like each other, but I don’t want you two to start wrestling in that vine cage. That’ll just make it awkward…for everybody.” Hunk finished.

“I _beg_ to _differ_ ,” objected Lance, affronted, and clapped a hand over his heart, “ _I’m_ never awkward, I’m smooth. Even when I’m wrestling I’ll be as smooth as a flowing river.”

“Actually, you’ll be more like a mudslide,” said Keith, and Hunk snorted.

“Oh yeah?” sniped Lance, “Do you _want_ a fight? Because I _will_ fight you! _I’ll fight you right here!_ ” he leaned towards Keith, snarling behind his visor and clenching his fists.

“Maybe I _do_!” growled Keith, sounding almost like a wild animal as he slammed his own helmet against Lance’s, hot-headedly accepting the invitation

“Okay! Okay, break it up guys,” Pidge started but then Lance pushed Keith into the vines and Keith kicked Lance so hard he almost fell through the cage so they _did_ end up having a wrestling match...or, rather, the semblance of one. It contained more stray hits, helmet pulling and awkward tumbling than any professional wrestling moves, though at one point, Lance did attempt to pick Keith up and slam him down, but they were going in the same direction, and space was incredibly limited, so they both realised the hard way that falling onto the edges of hard armour hurt like no hell could.

They spent a minute groaning and clutching at their injuries.

“And _what,_ may I ask, are you two doing?” said Allura called sternly, her hands on her hips and a frown etched upon her forehead. The villagers were crowding around her, trying to look at them without seeming too eager.

“Proving to the tree that we’re rivals, what did it look like?” groaned Lance.

“Two fools tumbling around in a cage.” She turned to Hunk and Pidge, “Why didn’t you stop them?”

“Well…” started Pidge

“We tried, you know... but I was scared of being hit, no offence, by one of Keith’s stray kicks.” Hunk frowned at Keith.

“Oh, sorry.” said Keith, then he sat up and stared at the vines still surrounding them.

“Wow Lance. Your plan didn’t work.” he deadpanned.

“Oh, why don’t you just shut your quiznak, _Keith?”_ Lance retorted and Allura’s eye twitched.

“I keep _telling_ you that you’re using that word incorrectly.” quipped Allura, closing her eyes in frustration.

“So, how _are_ we supposed to use ‘quiznak’?”

Allura pointedly turned to the village elder.

“I suppose we should begin the ritual. How do we start?”

“No!” yelped Lance. He crashed himself against the cage and peered desperately through the purple vines.

“Wait!” He calmed down slightly, “There has got to be another way to free us right?” The village elder blinked, slightly startled by his outburst.

“No, I’m afraid that we have no other ritual. However it would be strange for the Belengy Tree to do this without a reason. Obviously, you two share some kind of strong bond.” The elder gazed at them intently, “If you two really aren’t inclined to go through with the bonding ritual…I’m afraid there may be no way of getting you two out without inflicting harm onto the Belegny Tree.”  The two paladins stared at each other with muted horror, shock showing on their faces so strongly it was almost comedic.  

“H-hey, come on.” said Lance, his voice wobbling, “There has to be _some_ thing else we can do.”

“No, not really.“ said the young Pokc. Everyone turned to look at them and they flushed slightly from the sudden attention. Their next words were slightly unsteady, ”Um...the Belegny Trees have never been previously known to pair an incompatible couple...that is….”

The young Pokc trailed off, but they took a death breath, and continued, voice and posture slightly  more confident than before.

“That being said, there have been rare recorded cases where the nature of the bond between the couple paired is not really…based on romantic attraction. Perhaps this is the case now?”

“So, even the couple hate each other they still get paired?” asked Hunk.

“Well, no. The pairings will never be based on such a strong negative feeling. That would be destructive. No…the pairings are more based on traits that the couples share that would benefit each other, sort of like teamwork. When couples are bonded they almost become a single being. You can think of it as permanent teamwork.”

“Nida, if this pairing is based not on a bond of love, then what do you think it may be?” the village elder enquired.

“U-uh.” Nida stammered, slightly shocked to be addressed so directly, “I-I’m not sure. We’ll have to ask the princess’ warriors.”

“Hate.” Lance blurted.

“That goes against _everything_ we just learnt.  I don’t hate you, and I don’t think you actually hate me.” Keith said.

“Good looks?” ventured Hunk.

“Ehhhh…” Pidge replied and smiled, “I wouldn’t exactly bet on that.”

“Skills in battle? Your warriors were incredible when they defeated the Galra.” The village elder complimented.

“While they are skilled in many ways, they’re still quite far from being the best fighters,“ stated Allura. “But we’ll leave that as a possible option.”

“I’m _insulted_ ,” said Lance.

“I agree with Allura,” said Keith, “Your stray shot was what landed us in this mess in the first place. I’d say that takes a certain level of incompetence.”

“Okay, now you’re all just ganging up against me.”

“Well, whatever the nature of the bond, we should still try and get you two out first.” said Allura.

“But that means, you’re going to have to _bond me, to **Keith**!_ ”

 _“I...think I missed quite a bit of information.”_ Shiro’s voice broke through the communication channel, _“Why is Lance being bonded to Keith?”_

“Oh man, Shiro. Lance and Keith are about to be alien married,” Hunk stated bluntly, the expression on his face now akin to childish glee.

“No we aren’t _._ ” Keith rejected angrily.

_“O…kay?””said Shiro, “And how did this happen? No, never mind that. I called because I think I’m onto something important. I followed the creature through the forest and it lead me to this weird hill. It’s...It’s kind of emitting this energy? I can hear a low hum.”_

“A low hum?” asked Pidge, “Wait, I think I can hear it too.” Everyone fell silent and listened intently. True to Shiro’s report, there was a faint, low hum that resonated all around them.

“How very strange…” mused the village elder, “We’ve heard that hum on and off for weeks but it seems stronger today. Nida, do you happen to know what this is?” Nida shook their head immediately when everyone turned to look at them, but Keith noticed that they frowned afterwards and seemed to lose themselves in deep thought when everyone else was no longer paying attention.

“Wait, Shiro,” said Pidge, “You said you also felt some emission of energy. Can you explain that?”

“Uh…I’m not too sure. My arm’s reacting to it. Sometimes it feels like it’s getting charged, but other times it feels like energy is being taken from it.” Shiro looked down at his prosthetic arm and noticed that the tip would glow bright purple, before fading out while accompanied with a faint draining sensation. When he had first arrived at the hill the drain was barely noticeable, but now, it was as if something was actively leeching away at his strength and power.

His muscles were starting to get tired even though he had quickly recovered from his short chase, and the tussle he had with the creature shouldn’t have been that exhausting. Looking at the hill, Shiro couldn’t really see anything out of the ordinary, for an alien planet that is. There were the strange flora, and he saw the occasional fauna, creatures that made him wish he had brought a camera, but other than that, _visually_ , there was nothing strange about the hill or the area around it.

Yet, Shiro couldn’t shake the feeling that he had stepped onto something sacred, something ancient, something so inexplicably powerful, and unafraid of the universe, that it could simply sleep here for millennia without needing to wake to protect itself.

A great and ancient creature.

He could sense its breaths in the way the energy rose and fell, slow, steady. It was still sleeping, yet the rises and falls were becoming increasingly stronger, and more affecting. It must be waking up.

 _“Shiro? Is something wrong?”_ Lance was speaking to him. Shiro had been dimly aware of the others trying to talk to him before, but he had been too distracted to reply.

“Oh. No, everything’s fine-“ Shiro started.

Then he felt it, a deep inhale of breath, and the sudden drain brought him to his knees. He felt like he had run for kilometres, all his muscles ached and he felt lightheaded.

 _“Hey Lance? Lance!”_ That was Keith now. _“Ugh….”_

 _‘Keith! Are you alright?”_ Allura’s voice was sharp, worried.

_“I’m fine, I…I’m just feeling a little dizzy…”_

Shiro took several deep breaths, trying to even his breathing. The dead leaves were now swirling around with ferocity, forming a miniature vortex.

Then an exhale, almost like a long sigh, and Shiro was hit with a sudden burst of energy like a current was running through him. His prosthetic arm glowed to the point it was almost blinding and the excess energy turned into electricity, sending painful shocks through his system and causing his arm and suit to malfunction. His armour’s jetpack activated, launching him several metres into the air, and for a brief moment he was disconnected from the current, and he could breathe again.

Shiro looked down, trying to calm his rapid gasps and find a safe place to land. He was aiming to go as far away from the hill as possible. The leaf vortexes below had quickly dissipated, flinging leaves into the air. He couldn’t see the strange creature he was following anywhere.

_“Shiro! What’s wrong?”_

_“Hey, are you two alright?”_

_“Uhh…what happened?”_ Lance’s voice was slightly slurred.

 _“Shiro!”_ Pidge yelled.

“I’m fine Pidge, I’m fine. Is everyone alright over there?”

 _“Sort of,”_ said Hunk, “ _Lance passed out for a few moments, and the leaves went kind of crazy…but other than that nothing really major happened. What about you? Are you really okay? We heard you yell.”_

“There… was a sudden surge of energy and my suit and arm started to malfunction. I’m alright now. Really. Is Lance alright?”

 _“Y-yeah.”_ Lance replied. _“For some reason I feel much more awake now.”_ He stretched his arms. “Wow, I feel great! Like I could fight an elephant!”

“I don’t think that’s advisable,” said Keith.

“Hey, you seem more awake too!”

“…Thanks?”

“Those energy surges….I’ve read something about them.” Nida placed one of their hands on the Belegny’s bark, “I…I can’t really remember unfortunately, since there was so little information on them, and it was roughly translated but-"

“Wait…” said Pidge, “The hum’s gone now.” They turned to Nida, “Are you _really_ sure you don’t know anything about it?”

Nida was silent for a moment.

“…Actually, it’s part of the legend of the Gahruin, but it’s rarely mentioned. I-I don’t think…I don’t…” they took a deep breath, “I’ve never believed those legends. There’s so little known about them, and so many different versions! That hum we’ve heard said to be the Gahruin’s voice, but we don’t _actually_ know what it is.”

 _“Well, whatever it is, we need to find out pronto,”_ said Shiro, _“I think the next energy fluctuation is going to be even stronger, so we should know how to best prepare for it. Get Lance and Keith out of those vines.”_

“But-!” started Lance.

“Wait, Lance.” Keith carefully placed a hand on the blue paladin’s shoulder, “I think we should go through with the ritual.”

“What! Keith! Are you crazy?”

“No, think about it. I felt it too, the drain, you only fainted this time, but what happens when it comes back, even stronger? We can’t just stay here and wait for that to happen.”

Lance frowned at Keith but he seemed to be listening, and was carefully considering his choices.

“I….” He hesitated, then sighed, “Fine. But, um--” Lance turned to address the village elder. “--we can divorce, right?”

“Di….vorrs?”

“Yeah, like break up, unmarry, _unbond_?”

“Oh, oh no. Once bonded, you are bonded forever.”

“ _For-“_ His jaw hung open, eyes wide, before he suddenly shook his head and looked at Keith sceptically. “This had better be worth it then.”

Keith held Lance’s gaze evenly, something like fire lighting behind his eyes.

“It will.” He promised.

Something seemed to pass through the both of them in that moment. Their energies seemed to mingle into each other, and there was an unspoken agreement. Even the wind that blew around them seemed to be affected by the intensity of their stares, lifting leaves and making them dance at the base of the cage.

“How beautiful,” the village elder beamed, “If we are to begin the ritual now, we should be finished by nightfall. Nida, Gelen, Brimstur and Ghara, step forward and surround the Belegny Tree.”

The three Pokcs and the village elder moved to stand in a wide circle, surrounding the base of the tree and linked arms, their long limbs weaving into each other. Nida knelt down in front of the cage and spread out the many scrolls they had been carrying. They handed a blank one to Lance and Keith. The scroll was heavy and thick, and the texture seemed familiar.

“They are made from the dead leaves that fell from the Belegny Trees,” informed Nida, “their paper is tough and is believed to have special magical properties. It’s a symbol of longevity and strong bonds.” They smiled warmly and bowed, before they moved to link their arms with two other Pokc, completing the chain.

 _“Aw, I feel slightly sad that I don’t get to see this ritual.”_ Said Shiro, humour evident in his voice. _“Alright guys, I’ll be right there.”_ He looked around the forest, but was unable to see any familiar landmarks save for the mysterious hill.

“Uhhh…on second thoughts, maybe I’ll be a little late.”

 _“It’s alright Shiro,”_ said Pidge, tone overly casual. _“I wouldn’t call this event particularly exciting. It’s just Lance and Keith, getting married.”_ They smirked lazily.

“I’m making no comments.” 

Shiro smiled to himself. Whatever this ritual really was, be it a simple union ceremony or something much deeper and more permanent, he personally hoped that it helped those two perform better as a team.

They needed Voltron now more than ever.

Shiro would give them this time to relax. They were all still emotionally worn out from their latest battle against the Galra to free this planet.

It seemed that the Galra had yet again found ways to exponentially increase their battle power. They had to fight against hundreds of ships, each seeming to be running on an infinite power source, with guns that wouldn’t stop shooting even when the rest of the ship was almost completely non-functioning. Coran, he once said that the ships were running on ‘quintessence’? It was also apparently the most highly concentrated and pure source of energy, and Zarkon had somehow managed to obtain enough to power entire solar systems.

Shiro sighed.

He didn’t want to think about these things right now, not when he had to first find a way to get back to his team.

Then, there was the matter of those energy fluctuations. Ever since that huge energy surge, the rhythm of the energy cycles had returned to normal, or at least to its previous, steady rhythm. If they were really on planning to stay on this planet for just a while longer, they would need to know about its quirks. The energy cycles could be potentially deadly, heck Shiro already knew for certain that they were dangerous through today’s recent events. The fact that it could happen again, and possibly even stronger next time, worried him deeply. The hill definitely had something to do with the energy cycles; he had only sensed the rise and fall of energy when he was close to it. It could be the source. Perhaps he would look into it now.

But the risk- he couldn’t afford to go anywhere near it if another energy surge was going to happen. His prosthetic arm was still occasionally twitching from the leftover energy from the surge. Still, he found himself standing back at the same place he had followed the creature to. The hill was right in front of him, and he could still feel the rise and fall of energy that was so remarkably like slow, steady breathing.

A soft cry.

That was the voice of the creature. It was somewhere in front of him. There were so many dead leaves. Shiro almost had to wade through them, swinging his arms to propel himself forwards.

Then he saw it.

A limp form lying on the ground, almost completely buried under the leaves. Why were there so many leaves?

Shiro rapidly brushed them aside, ignoring the ones that stuck to his suit, and gently lifted the creature up from the ground. It wasn’t injured, he was sure of it, yet it seemed close to dying. He checked its pulse. Weak.

He would have to hurry then.

Turning around, Shiro almost slipped. The leaves again. Dammit, why were there so many?

A leaf floated down in front of him, and Shiro looked up.

Leaves were floating down everywhere like slow raindrops. The trees around him were almost bare. Shiro slowly turned around to take a good, long look around the forest, to look at all the trees surrounding the hill,  and he realised that they all were rapidly dropping leaves. He could even see some of them shrivel up and fall off the branches.

Dead leaves and dying trees. The _dying_ creature. Why didn’t he notice this sooner? He was certain now. The energy fluctuations were deadly, possibly for everyone, if they didn’t make it out of its range on time. Forget the hill. Forget trying to find out what was causing the energy fluctuations in the first place. He had to get everyone away. Away from the forest. Away from the planet even.

Shiro took off running, not caring whether or not he slipped or fell on the leaves that now covered the floor like floodwater.

He re-entered the communication channel just as he felt the beginning of a deep inhale forming from the hill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp there's another 3000 words.  
> I'll try and merge the chapters later  
> when i have....more chapters....  
> You can talk to me at [ obvious-voltron-sideblog.tumblr.com](https://obvious-voltron-sideblog.tumblr.com) ( great name right? :V You can ask me such important questions such as "What the heck do the Pokc even look like you've never described them?" )  
> In the meantime (as a sort of compensation for my lack of writing)  
> have these Voltron videos I found on tumblr: [ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HcjqsyGnw-adEsde1Sxh7MKga0HmsPWI7xhgixFu1GE/edit?usp=sharing ](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HcjqsyGnw-adEsde1Sxh7MKga0HmsPWI7xhgixFu1GE/edit?usp=sharing)  
> and this Klance songlist by elentori: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLziDRRNAKl-wxIBnjvCIstI-_b538MRbx ](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLziDRRNAKl-wxIBnjvCIstI-_b538MRbx)  
> they also have great Voltron art on their tumblr btw: [elentori-art.tumblr.com/tagged/myart](https://elentori-art.tumblr.com/tagged/myart)  
> and also this quickly put together Voltron playlist which has nice speedpaints, crack videos and half of it are songs from the same Youtuber that I feel are kind of related. Maybe. Well they may be related this this fanfic at least, and maybe...later works...  
> Well the songs are completely my music taste since I don't really...go out and explore, so they may not be for everyone  
> anyway here it is: [ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNpqWjqqP6MztpSVL57l-flTLvTcizxLO](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNpqWjqqP6MztpSVL57l-flTLvTcizxLO)
> 
> AT THSI POINT I'M JUST RUNNING ON DETERMINATION I HAVE NOT  
> IT'S THE EARLY  
> EARLY MORNING HERE WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  
> ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


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